New Pedagogies 250 words

I just read about “new pedagogies” in Michael Fullan’s latest contribution to educational thinking A Rich Seam. This was a great professional read for me if only because it stood in the face of my kids who complain that I am “like the only person in America that uses the word pedagogy, so please stop.”

Beyond offering fodder in my battle with my children Fullan has several ideas worth noting. Based on the understanding that teaching and learning structures should be built on real classrooms rather than “flagship” or marquee concept school prototypes Fullan team has labeled 3 “major shifts” that arise as schools add technology in significant ways:

Personalization: The best result of new learning partnerships that arises between students and teachers when digital tools become pervasive.

Change leadership: The best result of the merger of top down, bottom up and sideways energies to generate change.

Cheap content: The best result of learning tools, information and educational resources expanding and competing for our digital attention.

The result of adding these three power hitters to our pedagogical lineup means that students will need to not only create new knowledge but connect that knowing to the world around and use it to do things that matter to them.

That last piece is the real selling point for me. “Creating new knowledge, connecting it to the world, and using it to do something that matters.”

I see evidence of all three of these “New Pedagogies” all over the place.